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Appledorn's Fall Frenzy recap


polarsusd81

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So starting off Friday, the weather didn't look like it would cooperate with the rain and lightning. We got up there about noon and passed through what turned out to be the last storm we encountered. Paul has the coolest launch method on the lake, the tractor valet is pretty sweet. My buddy TroyMcClure and I went with Boilerguy down to Isle to fish perch. We got into a few of them and the boats started hurding. We pulled in about 75 and were able to keep 7 worth cleaning. When we arrived back at the dock, the rest of the crew was starting to show up and everyone gathered at the big cabin. Paul put on a great spread for dinner, much better than what was expected from a taco bar. Everyone was sharing fishin stories, and from the sound of things Paul and Deitz have the best stories of em all.

Saturday morning started out with a thick bank of fog and not too much wind, though the bilges were running because we got a bit of rain Friday night. Most people went out in the morning for a bit and met back up just after noon for a session of watching the neighbor wade in shorts and t-shirts (some without frown.gif) pull their dock in. We had the camera ready for any mishaps, but it was rather uneventful. Tony Roach returned from a guide trip at about 1:30 and we all got ready for an informative seminar from him. About 4 the seminar was over and the food was on. Lots of steaks and brats were grilling up and plenty of sides to go around. After dinner, we all headed out and I went with PerchJerker for a bumpy ride north to troll a weed bed in 7 feet of water. We got into fish pretty quick and I pulled a dollar fish to the side of the boat and due to a net mishap and probably being a little too quick, the fish shook off. We picked up four fish on our first pass, I got a 19, 21, and 22 and Perch picked up a 18 3/4. We made a couple more passes and picked up 4 more over the next couple hours, with 21, 23, 24 1/2, and Perch pulled in a nice 27. We moved over to the west side near Twin Pines and made a nice long pass but didn't get anything to hit so we decided to call it a night. We pulled into the dock at 2:45 am and hit the sack. Very nice night to be on the water but the water temps need to drop just a bit more before they really start to go. What a trip up there though, we will definitely be back next year.

Thanks a lot to Paul, Deitz, Boilerguy, PerchJerker, and Tony Roach. This was too much fun and if you weren't there, you should have been.

Tom D.

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Yeppers, twas a blast... GOod time had by all... Hey, if you have a chance.. check your e-mail Tom, and send me any picts? So I can put them with the podcast 8-).

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Here are some of the photos.

Paul's awesome valet launch service

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The fog on Saturday morning

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Borch in the bay.

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Borch, DTRO, Deitz, and Boilerguy at the big cabin.

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Hanson and Borch

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Beautiful sunset from the end of Appledorn's dock.

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The crew coming down the dock.

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My 19"

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My 24 1/2"

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PerchJerker with a 23"

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My 22"

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And the final fish of the night for us, PerchJerker with a 27"

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What a blast!

Big thanks to Paul, Deitz, and Appledorns for the great hospitality. For anyone that hasn't had a chance to check out the resort I recommend you do. I was very impressed with the cabins, and the boat launch is impressive.

Just from the short time I spent there, it is quite obvious that Paul takes great pride in making sure your stay there is top notch. Thanks again

I really enjoyed the informative seminar by Tony Roach, especially since this whole type of presentation was new to me. I soaked it up like a sponge and tried to put it to good use Sat night.

We didn't get into a bunch of fish, but did manage to boat three, with the biggest at 24.

It was nice meeting everyone, hope to do it again sometime.

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It was a great night last night! Great sunset off of Doe Island!

Stopped by Apples last night around 8:00 and I think every one was out fishing! Had boat, but mainly came up for the BSing with you guys around camp fire! Saw all your guys trucks lined up!

We will catch up with you guys another time!

Resort is looking great!

I tell ya, the lake is low! I do not think I have every see the lake this low before.

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Ya, I brought the boat, but brought beer grin.gif.

I wanted to see if I could catch You, Hanson, Deitz, paul and who else around campfire for some good old BS.

But! With a night like last night, one would have to be nutz not fishing! I figure I woud take a drive and get out of house.

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What a weekend!

I think there are a lot of folks in FM land who will be kicking themselves for not making it to this Get-Together.

The Taco Bar on Friday night was amazing! Social time on Friday night was also great, I learned about a lot of things, and I also learned some things I didn't really need to know either. blush.gif Thanks Dietz!

Saturday started off with Appledoorn's "infamous" valet boat launching service provided by Paul. This is too cool! Dtro filmed a little video of us launching and hopefully he'll post it up later. Once on the water, it was scouting time. I've never fished this part of Mille Lacs before so we were snooping things out in preparation for the evening trolling run.

Once back at Appledoorn's, the excitement was building for Tony Roach's seminar. Every time you can pick the brain of a guy who fishes for a living is time well spent. Tony covered darn near everything there is to cover about trolling for walleyes. It was seriously sensory overload, from cranks to leadcore, linecounters to snap weights, driftsocks to boat rigging, locations to seasonal patterns. And for those who don't know, Tony is a first class guy in my book and an unbelievable fisherman.

Let's see... what else ... Saturday was even more food. It was bring your own food for the grill night but there was plenty to go around for everyone, and then some! Steak, brats, potatoes, corn, and the list goes on and on! Yummy! Perfect timing for filling the belly for a night of trolling.

The sun would soon be setting and it was time to get after it. Dtro and I trolled and trolled and trolled. You have to remember we are a couple rookies at this. We finally found some shallow rocks holding fish and it was game on for a half hour or so.

I popped the first walleye on a Lazer Craw Rogue to get the excitement going. It wasn't big, but it was the ever elusive slot fish. grin.gif Trolling continued when Darren got hit on his Glass Perch HJ. He thought the fish got off until he cranked in a 10" or so eye, his crank was half the size of the fish grin.gif I popped an icon on my GPS and continued down the break when a big girl 24" fish hit Darren again, only a few minutes after releasing the other fish. Nice! That is what we were after! I marked another icon on the GPS and swung around to troll back through again. As we were coming across those 2 icons, Darren got smacked again which was a very, very nice fish that shook loose halfway to the boat. Bummer! And that would be the most action we had all night. 1am or so rolled around and it was time to head back to see what the rest of the guys did.

This was a super huge learning experience for us and we put a good number of puzzle pieces together. I'm definitely looking forward to doing this again.

When all was said and done, I donated a signed dollar to PerchJerker with his 27" eye. Nice job!

I just want to give a real big Thank You to Paul Waldowski and Appledoorn's Resort for hosting us! This was my first time up to Appledoorn's and it won't be my last. The cabins are really nice, the valet boat launch service rocks, and Paul will go out of his way to make your stay enjoyable.

I heard rumors of the 2nd Annual Appledoorn's Ice Fishing Get-Together, I think I'll be winning my dollar back that weekend. grin.gif

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Quote:

Quote:

his crank was half the size of the fish
grin.gif


shocked.gifblush.gif


That is funny stuff right there...musta been a tiny fish.

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Quote:

I will do a much more formal release of the podcast...

But here it is!


The podcast sounds great Deitz. I have already made plans with an uncle who wants to get up there in about two weeks on a week night to try it out a bit, Rob and I will get a second chance at em that night for sure.

I am wondering what time everyone was getting their fish? We popped 4 on our first run and it was probably between 7:15 to 8:00 for the first 4. Then it was one every pass or two. We trolled back and forth over the same clump of structure for 6 or 8 passes before Perch fired up the big motor for our run across.

Perch, send me an email and I will send over some photos that you can get printed out to frame with all those dollar bills. You are going to need an awfully big frame. My email is the username with an (at)yahoo.com after it.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

What a great time!!!

The accommadations at Appledorn's were fantastic! As always the company at the FM get together made the trip more than worthwhile. The information and stories shared were wonderful! In fact, we ended up discussing crankbaits and trolling strategies untill 3 am Saturday morning! The Taco bar was impressive as well. Thanks Paul! laugh.gif

I've never fished the SE side of the lake in the fall for eyes so Saturday was scouting time for me as well. I had several prospective spots to check ouot that I had entered into my boat's GPS. So off trolling I when to cover some water and get a feel for some of these spots. I ended up popping 3 nice eyes between 18-22" during the scouting trip pulling cranks. The presentation by Tony really fit the bill with some great information on trolling cranks both shallow and deep. So there was much anticipation for the evening outing with Rodmaker. After an unbelievably tender and tasty steak,(Thanks Rodmaker) and lots of other goodies we hit the water.

Within 15 minutes I had a hard hit on my perch thunderstick and thought I had big eye on but it ended up being a fat 33" pike instead. After that it was really slow for Rodmaker and I. So we decided to make the 3 1/2 mile run in the waves to one of the spots I checked out. On the first pass I had a nice fish hit my firtiger #12 Husky Jerk that came off after a short run and some heavy headshakes. It didn't take long to get one in the boat after that. We had pretty consistent action for the next 2 hrs and put 6 walleyes in the boat between 17-22" with a few that we lost as well. Rodmaker broke in his new cranking rod he made with a few fat 20-22" eyes on a #12 Husky Jerk in Clown. We had a great night even if we didn't end up "Hammering" the pig eyes. I really enjoyed the time talking fishing and life as we waited for that 30" eye to smack our cranks.

Thanks for another fun memorable weekend everyone! laugh.gif

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A huge thanks to Paul and Appeldoorns!! What a great trip. We never caught any walleye's but we sure tried. A guy coulda filled a 5 gallon pail with perch on saturday morning and that was fun until it became bumper boats.

I'm never disappointed when I come to these FM get-togethers. The food is great, the fishing is good and the BS is top notch.

I have to say, my favorite part was listening to Tony Roach. I agree with Hanson, it was sensory overload. That man has forgotten more about fishing then I will ever learn. I love to troll and I've caught just about everything you can catch doing it and I didn't know anything about what Tony talked about. I can't wait to put some of that stuff to good use. Time to buy a troller's bible.

I don't know that I'll get up there again for open water since I don't own a boat, but you know I will be back to Appeldoorns for the hard water. Once the lake freezes, Paul won't have to worry about his 4wheeler getting stuck on auto-pilot tongue.gif

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Borch,

Thanks again !!! It was a blast!!! Learned alot while fishing and talking with you in the boat, and look forward to another outing if time permits again this Fall if you have an opening for an eve. Look out 27 - 30" Eyes as soon as the water temps drop more.

Glad to bring up the Steak for you. I'll look at the web site on that tackle box you have for cranks, and order one.

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Powerstroke,

Glad to have met you this weekend. Let me know if you have any more of those hats. It was a great weekend for sure!!!!

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It was great meeting you and alot of the other guys this weekend!!

Appledorn's is an awesome place, and look forward to coming back again.

It was a great group of guys, and I want PerchJerkers boat without the price tag!!! grin.gif

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WOW!!!!!

What a weekend!!!

All of us here at Appeldoorn's Sunset Bay would like to send out a huge thank you to all of those that attended our First Annual Fall Frenzy. It was great to make some new friends and rekindle relationships with some old ones.

Just another example of why anyone attending one of these gatherings will leave with a lot of new knowledge and ton of lifelong memories.

Thanks for all of the kind words, but it was the FM'ers that attended this event and made it what it was. Special thanks to Dietz Dittrich for all of his help over the weekend. Couldn't have done it without you bud. Also a HUGE thanks to Tony Roach for the seminar and then taking the time to hang around and answer any and all questions.

Bring on the ice!!! I'm looking forward to the 2nd annual FM'er Ice gathering. I want that signed dollar back from PerchJerker laugh.gif

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Paul,

What an awesome place!!!!! Thanks for all your help with my motor Fri afternoon. It was a "shocking" experience for you!!!! I did switch out batteries before I left so you have the one you let me use over the weekend.

Dietz, it was great meeting you, and everyone else, a great group, and I hope there is a second Fall Frenzy next year.

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Twas nice to meet you as well Rodmaker!

Paulie, twas my pleasure... Just shoot me an e-mail when them piggies get on the prowl!

IF.... IF... IF there will be a second?.. uhhhhhh DUH.. Must do next year!

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I agree - a must do again next year. grin.gif

Hope you recovered from signing off on your Dollar to PerchJerker.

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I was only able to be there for about 1/2 of the event, I got there right when the Tony Roach seminar started on Saturday. Great timing, it was a fantastic presentation and being able to talk to Tony afterwards with some detail questions was a huge plus.

Appledorns is immaculate, the photos on the website look great but really don't do it justice. The cabins have a great rustic look to them and are in top-top condition and the one I stayed in was HUGE. The grounds at the resort are awesome and the beachfront is something you have to see to believe. It was the perfect setting for this event and it's obvious that Paul goes out of his way to keep the resort in great condition and make sure every guest is enjoying their stay. When things got a little slow on Sunday morning Paul even put a little show on for us by jumping in off the dock to save his atv from heading out to open water.

Saturday was a great night to go fishing. Big thanks to Tom (polarsusd81) for jumping in the boat with me and for taking care of all the photos. I'm not very familiar with the area of lake around Appledorns, and when we got on the water Saturday evening the wind and the waves were cooperative so we made a pretty long run up the lake to an area I've fished before. Turns out it was a good move, as we got on fish almost right away, and later pulled the "money fish" off that spot.

There was a little controversy on the money fish. Tom had our first fish of the night, which we got a REAL GOOD look at while I was trying to untangle my net from one my rod holders. It was a 27"-28" fish and you need to have your act together with a fish like that. We didn't, and the fish was gone before we could net it. There were no more net mishaps after that though, and Tom was a great sport about it and did a great scoop job on my 27 incher later in the night.

It was great meeting so many of the guys from FM, and I look forward to the next time. Maybe at the ice get-together ---- I'm more of an open-water fisherman but I can probably win the big-fish pot on the ice too grin.gif I'm looking forward to it already!!!!!!!

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Perch, any time you have an open seat or two, drop me a line and Rob and I will see what we can do to make the trip. I can't thank you enough for bringing me out. It was awesome fishing with you and I learned a lot. Watching how the boat tracked on your GPS unit is going to cost me cause I am going to need to pick one of those up. After we figured out how to operate a net, it turned out to be a great night of fishing. Still wish I hadn't broke off on the HOG right before we moved west. I keep running it over and over in my head to think if there were anything different I could have done and all scenarios end up without my Bleeding Hot Copper Minnow Rap.

I can't wait to get back up there, probably will be doing a weeknight trip sometime next week with my uncle and Rob. Hope you don't mind me fishing the spot you showed me. I really like the way that breakline ran.

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Great job fishing again Sat eve.

Glad to meet you Sat eve at the cook out!!

You need to post the photo of all the dollar bills. Especially the one from Deitz!!!!

What did you ask Tony after the seminar. Just curious.

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I am just waiting for all of these fish that Perchjerker and Tom keep talking about to get bigger. They have photo evidence, but the lengths already seem to be going up incrementally. Tom insists he lost a monster fish, but since no one has ever seen it.. sounds like a snag on a log or rock to me. That "lunker" that stole his minnow rap always seems to be in the same spot in the lake.

Paul really took care of that place and all of us. Thanks for the fun and the lessons on fishing walleye in Mille Lacs. I will definitely have to get to more of the FM get-togethers. Did I hear 2nd Annual Ice Fishing Frenzy?????

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Good times, thanks to Paul and the FMers for a fun weekend! Great place, great service, you gotta love the 1st class tractor/limo launching service!

I found a great little rock pile for slip bobbering on, should be a perfect 4 foot pile once the water comes up 3 feet! Oops....... Have a toe that's about the size of my thumb and a nice shade of purple now!

Thanks again to all involved!

Chris

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Great photos and dialogue everyone. If I wouldn't have been hosting an FM Get-Together of my own down here, you know I would have been there.

Happy to hear it went so well.

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Quote:

What did you ask Tony after the seminar. Just curious.


I was talking to Tony mostly about leadcore. I have a lot of experience trolling but don't have too much experience with leadcore, so being able to talk to someone that does it a lot and knows so much about it was very interesting.

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I have never in my 40 years been to a better set up place than Appledorns!!!

Where does a guy even start to talk about the good times??? Friday night taco bar, meet and greet, grips and grins, too much fun. Friday afternoon perch fest in Isle bay with the fleet. We lost count of how many we actually caught!!!

Saturday morning fog busting and perch fishing. Seminar by TONY ROACH!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! Saturday evening BBQ!!! If you are a food lover you misse the spread of a liftime. Saturday night wave bustin and eye fishing. Fellas, if there's a heaven on earth that was it.

Sunday morn even offered some entertainment with duel tractor die, then pull the boat out, and for added flavor Paul went swimming after his wheeler.

Way too much fun. To all the FM'ers out there reading this, you missed out on one hecuva weekend. I can't thank Paul enough for setting this up. He's one heck of a guy and totally goes overboard for the people at the resort.

Deitz, I just got back so as soon as I get my act together I"ll e-mail you some pictures.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

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